Build options · Budget · UK 2026
The cheapest trade website that doesn't look cheap
Every low-cost route to a trade website, ranked on what it really costs over two years — and where to spend the little money you do have.
You can put a trade website online for nothing this afternoon — and most that do look it. The honest figure to fix in your head is about £395: that's roughly what a hand-coded one-pager costs once, and it's also about what two years of a mid Squarespace plan costs in subscription fees alone. "Cheap" and "looks cheap" are two different problems, and they're not solved by spending more. They're solved by spending the small budget on the three or four things customers actually judge you on, and skipping everything else.
This runs through the low-cost routes in order, what each really costs once you count two years, and — the part most guides skip — exactly what to keep and what to cut so a budget site still reads as a proper business and not a weekend project.
The cheapest way to get a trade website that still looks professional is a one-off hand-coded one-pager from around £395, or a paid builder plan at £10–£25/month if you'll build it yourself. A truly free builder tier saves money but adds the platform's branding and a subdomain, which reads as amateur. The single cheapest upgrade that matters most is your own domain, at roughly £10–£15 a year.
The cheapest ways to get a trade website, ranked
The low-cost routes in 2026 are, from cheapest first: a free builder tier (£0, but branded), a paid builder subscription (£120–£300 a year), a budget freelancer (£300–£1,500 once), and a hand-coded one-pager (around £395 once) — and the order changes once you count two years.
Free builder tiers (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy)
Every big builder has a free tier, and on paper it's unbeatable: £0. The catch is what "free" puts on your site — the platform's own branding, adverts, and a subdomain like yourname.wixsite.com instead of a real address. To a customer comparing two trades, that's the tell that you didn't take it seriously. Free is only sensible as a throwaway test, never as the site people actually judge you on.
Paid builder subscriptions
Move to a paid plan and you drop the branding and get your own domain. Wix and Squarespace paid tiers run from roughly £10 to £25 a month, as published on their pricing pages. That buys a credible-enough DIY site — but it's a meter that never stops, and you're building and maintaining it on your own time.
Budget freelancer or hand-coded
A freelancer might do a simple page for £300–£1,500, with quality as variable as the price. A hand-coded one-pager is around £395 as a one-off — built for you, owned by you, no subscription. For a single page that needs to look right and load fast, that one-off is usually the best value of the lot. The full route-by-route sum is on the tradesman website cost page.
What "cheap" actually costs over two years
Over 24 months a paid builder costs £240–£600 in subscription alone and you own nothing at the end, while a £395 hand-coded one-pager with managed hosting totals about £635 and the files stay yours — so the "expensive" option is often the cheaper one.
The subscription that quietly overtakes a one-off
A £15/month builder plan feels cheaper than £395 up front. It isn't, for long. By month 27 you've paid more in subscription than the one-off cost — and you keep paying after that, forever, for something you can't move. A hand-coded one-pager at £395, plus optional £10/month all-in hosting, lands around £635 across two years and leaves you owning the files outright.
| Route | Day one | Two-year total | Own it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free builder tier | £0 | £0 (branded, weak) | No |
| Paid builder | £0 | £240–£600 | No |
| Budget freelancer | £300–£1,500 | £420–£1,700 | Usually |
| Hand-coded one-pager | £395 | ~£635 all-in | Yes |
The cost you can't see: your own time
DIY routes hide their biggest cost. If your day rate is £200–£350, a weekend building the site plus evenings maintaining it is real money. Counting that, "free" and "cheap" builders are often the dearest option of all.
What to keep and what to safely skip
To stay cheap without looking cheap, keep your own domain, three to five real job photos, genuine reviews, your accreditation number and a clear phone number — and skip the blog, booking systems, live chat and any page that exists only to look busy.
The five things to always keep
- Your own domain — about £10–£15 a year, the cheapest upgrade with the biggest effect.
- Real photos of real jobs — three to five beats fifty stock images.
- Genuine reviews — a handful of real ones, named, beat a wall of anonymous five stars.
- Your accreditation — Gas Safe, NICEIC, NAPIT or your trade body, stated plainly.
- A clear phone number — visible without scrolling, tap-to-call on mobile.
What you can drop without losing a single enquiry
Skip the blog you'll never write, the booking calendar nobody uses, live chat you can't man, animated intros, and every page past what you actually offer. A single tight page with the five things above out-performs a bloated five-page site. For the full list of what earns its place, see what a tradesman website should include.
The mistakes that make a cheap site look cheap
A budget site reads as amateur for predictable reasons — a free subdomain, stock photos of other people's work, no real reviews, and a template thousands of others use — and every one of them is avoidable on the same small budget.
The free-subdomain giveaway
Nothing says "didn't bother" like mybusiness.wixsite.com in the address bar. A real domain costs less than a tank of diesel a year and fixes it instantly. It's the first thing to spend money on, before anything else.
Stock photos and empty trust
Generic stock images of strangers in clean overalls fool no one and quietly say you've nothing of your own to show. Four photos off your own phone, of jobs you actually did, beat them every time. Same with reviews — a few real, named ones carry more weight than a row of anonymous stars.
The template tell
A stock builder template shared by thousands of businesses is recognisable to a lot of customers. You don't need an expensive site to avoid it — you need one built around your trade rather than dropped into a layout meant for a café. If you're weighing the platforms themselves, the best way to build a tradesman website breaks each down.
The cheapest route that still looks the part
For a working trade on a budget, the best-value option is a one-off hand-coded one-pager with your own domain — cheaper than a builder over two years, owned outright, and built to look like a real business rather than a free template.
The bottom line on going cheap
Cheap is fine. Cheap-looking isn't. The trick isn't spending more — it's putting the small budget into a real domain, real photos, real reviews and your accreditation, and cutting everything that only exists to look busy. Do that and a £395 site reads as a proper business; skip it and a £2,000 one still won't.
See it free before you spend anything
I'll build you a free mockup of your actual business first — your trade, your area, your photos — so you can see the cheap-but-credible version before paying a penny. A one-pager is £395 (founding price; £500 after the first 10 clients), a full site £595. Hosting is £10/month all-in, no contract, unlimited small changes, and refer another trade and you both get £100 off — a one-pager for as little as £295. Apply at sitework.uk/#apply.